Process of making rail-joint bars.



G. A. WEBER.

1, 1 1 6, 181. l" ma' Patented NW3, 1914.

//// gauw/whoa G. A. WEBER. PROCESS 0F MAKING RAIL JOINT BARS.

APPLICATION FILED MAB. 11, 1913- 1,1 16,181. Patented Nov.3,1914.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

SAFES PATENT OFFCE.

GEORGE A. WEBER, OF STANFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE RAIL JONT` COMPANY, OF NEYV YORK, N, Y., A. CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

PROCESS OF MAKING RAIL-JOINT BARS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 3,1914.

Application filed March 11, 1913. Serial No. 753,574.

To all whom it may concern: j

lie it known that I, Geenen A. Wnnma citizen of the United States, residing at Stamford, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes of Making Rail-Joint Bars, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to processes of manufacturing rail joint bars by means of rolling passes and pressing operations, and

more particularly has reference to the manufacture of rail joint bars ofthe continuous type, which type of joint bar has a main angle bar splice member adapted to iit the fishing spaces and 'flanges of the rails, and an integral base member adapted to underlie the rail bottoms and to provide a rail seat and support.

A general object of the invention is to provide a practical and expeditious process of manufacturing the continuous type of joint bar with one or more raised rail seating portions, whereby a bar possessing this structural characteristic can be economically, accurately, and rapidly produced without the necessity of any excessive handling of the bar, or the employment of complicated or expensive machinery.

In its specific aspect, the invention contemplates a process having certain practical advantages over a process heretofore used, in the making of continuous rail joint bars, which involved the feature of rolling the bar section with the base or base member open, that is to say with the base member disposed at an angleto the Iinal or rail seating position thereof. According to the known process referred to, the first step, as above indicated, is to develop the bar blank in the passes of a rolling mill, to produce a bar which comes from the mill with its base member disposed at an angle to its normal operative plane, and by reason of this open rolling of the base member of the bar, it is possible to employ and maintain shear blades therefor, thus permitting the bar as it comes from the final roll pass to be sheared to rail joint lengths, leaving no burs or fins` After shearing, the bar is punched and slotted for the bolts and spikes, is next reheated, and finally, while hot, is placed in a press or equivalent appliance, and the railsupporting base member bent up to its norma operative plane with respect to the main splice member.

It will be observed that in the open base process above described, the final pressing operation provides for moving the railsupporting base memberto its final operative position, that is to say, in a planewhcre- :in the upper surface of the said basemember, throughout the entire extent thereof, is adapted to contact with the bottoms of the rails in the joint, and consequently provide a rail seat and support; whereas, according to the present invention, after the joint bar has beenproduced with the open base disposed at an angle to its final operative position, it is then subjected to two pressing steps which respectively serve to close the base member, and then develop therein one or more rail seating portions adapted to be engaged by the rail bottoms. In other words, according to the improved process of the present invention, the base member of the joint bar, as an entirety, never reaches a railseatng position, as the first pressing step provides for moving the open base member to a position parallel with, but disposed at a distance from, a rail seating position, and the said base member is immovably held in such position while a subsequent pressing step comes into play and develops one or more raised rail seating portions from the base member'. It is thus possible, by means of the present process to develop a. rail seat from the base member of the joint bar at any point or points that may be desii-cd, while at the same time the pressing operations take care of any inequalities in the foot portioniof the bar from rolling and may be carried out while the bar is cold, thus being a very practical improvement, from a manufacturing standpoint, over the known process, above specified.

While various instrumentalitiesmay be utilized in carrying out this invention, and various alterations made in the precise man- `ner of handling the bar, during the course CTX of its development, without departing from the invention, one form of apparatus that may be utilized for carrying into effect the successive pressing steps, is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a perspective view of a forming press such as may be employed for carrying out the process, the presser head being shown in a raised position and portions being brolren away to more clearly illustrate the invention. Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the presser head as forced downwardly to bend the base section of the joint bar into its normal position. Fig. 3 isl a transverse sectional view through the forming press, the various parts lthereof being in the position shown by Fig. 2. F ig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3, showing the position assumed by the parts after the independent plungers have been forced downwardly to displace portions of the base section of the joint bar to provide the raised rail seating portions. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a continuous rail joint bar such as may be produced by the present process, the said bar being shown in an inverted position to bring out more clearly the formation of the rail supporting base section thereof, and Fig. 6 is a side elevation of a continuous type of rail joint with one of the joint bars removed, showing the manner of using joint bars such as may be formed by the present process.

ln explanation of the steps leading up to the pressing operations for developing a rail seat or seats, it is to be understood that initially the billet or bar blank is first subjected to a series of roll passes of known form, which secure the progressive distribution and reduction of the metal, and the gradual shapingof the bar, until it reaches a form having the surface configuration of its final shape, but possessing in this form no seat or support for the rail, inasmuch as the bar blank as it leaves the final pass of the rolls has its base member left Opern or disposed at an angle to its required final position. The rolled form of the bar, embodying' the structural characteristics specified, is plainly shown in the perspective view of Fig. l. of the drawings, and it will be observed that the said bar includes the main splice member a, the foot flange b, the toe member or spiking projection c, and the base member el, the latter being spread away from the splice member a at an acute angle thereto.

The rolled bar as it comes from the final pass of the rolls, having the form shown in Fig. l of the drawings, is then cut into rail joint lengths. In carrying out the present invention, it is preferable that this step in the process be accomplished by a shearing 4operation which leaves the ends of the bar free from fins and burs, so that no further finishing operation thereon is required or necessary, but it will be understood that I do not limit my invention to any particular kind of shearing devices inasmuch as any suitable or approved shearing means may be utilized for carrying out the shearing step of the process.

After the shearing of the bar, in the form shown in F ig. l of the drawings, into rail joint lengths, the rail joint bar is then subjected to final shaping pressure to move the base member al 'to its final position which is parallel to, but spaced a distance from, the rail seating position, and to produce a railsupporting seat or seats on the said base member. This may be accomplished in divers ways, but for illustrative purposes, one form of apparatus suitable for performing the pressing operations is suggested in Figs. l to d inclusive of the drawings. Referring particularly to these figures, the double-acting press shown therein includes in its organization an anvil block l which is rigidly mounted in position and has the working face thereof suitably shaped to accurately engage the outer face or side of the joint bar. The movable or clamping part 2 of the press cooperates with the anvil l -to tightly grip the splice member a of the joint bar, and is provided with a tongue or former 3 which has substantially `the same width as that of the base flange of the rail and projects over the foot flange b of the joint bar so as to provide a fulcrum over and upon which the base member CZ of the bar is bent or folded. This movable or clamping l part 2 of the press may be operated in any suitable manner and any suitable guide means may be provided for directing it in its movements, although in the present instance the bottom of the member 2 is shown as provided with a dove-tail recess d which engages a dove-tail guide rib 5 upon a supporting member 6. The upper surface of the tongue 3 which is formed in connection with the clamping part 2 of the press is made with a series of raised abutments 32L against which the rail-supporting base member (l of the joint bar is adapted to be folded. The presser head 7 of the forming press is mounted for vertical movement above the anvil block l and the clamping part 2. Any

suitable means may be provided for operating the presser head 7 and for directing the same in its movements. As indicated upon y the drawing, a dove-tail guide 8 may be provided for directing the presser head in its up and down movements.

From the construction so far described, it will be observed that the rail joint bar is clamped between the anvil block and the clamping part 2 of the press, as shown in Fig. l, with the base member Z of the bar still in its open or angular position, and the presser head `7 raised. Parts are then in position for the downward movement of the presser head 7, which movement of said head carries it against the upwardly projecting base member l with the result of bending or folding the base member' over and onto the raised abutments 3a of the tongue 3. `This initial operation of the press serves to carry the base member l of the joint bar to its required tinal position, which is in a plane parallel to, but disposed a distance from,a rail-seating position, and, according to the `present invention, the said base member is rigidly and immovably held in such final or normal position, during the iinal step of the process, so as to effectually preserve the proper' relation of the various members of the joint bar by preventing any possibility of the same being bent out of position or shape, or in any manner damaged during the Vfinal pressing or upsetting step.

Fig. l of the drawings illustrates a rail joint bai" prior to the closing down of the base member al onto the abutments o and Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawings illustrate that stage of the process wherein the closed base member Z is immovably clamped by the presser' head 7 ready for the final pressing step to take place, as will now appear.

In` connection with the said final pressing step of theprocess, it will be observed by reference to Figs. 2, 3, and 4 particularly of the drawings, that there are mounted upon the presser head 7 the independent die plungers 9 which are arranged over the die recesses 9a between the various raised abutments 3 of the tongue 3. After the base member Z of the joint bar A has been forced downwardly onto the raised portions 3 by means of the presser head 7, and while the said member l is held tightly and immovably clamped by the presser' head 7, as above mentioned, the independent plungers 9 are forced downwardly so as to displace portions of the base member Z and move the same into rail seating positions, as indicated at c.

Any suitable means may be provided for successively operating the presser head 7 and the independent plungers 9. 1n the present instance a shaft 10 is shown as extending longitudinally across the top of the presser head 7, the said shaft beingprovided with the two sets of cams 11 and l2 respectively, the cam 11 beingadapted to act upon the presser head 7, while the cams 12 are adapted to engage heads 13 at the upper ends of the stems 14 which project from the independent plungers 9. Coil springs 15 are shown as surrounding the stems 14: and interposed between the heads 13 and the bases of recesses 1G in the presser head 7 the said springs serving to move the independent plungers 9 upwardly into inoperative position as soon as they are released by the cams 12. It will be observed that the cams 11 are wider than the cams 12 and are constructed so as to maintain the presser head 7 in a lowered position for a definite interval of time. The cams 12 are narrower than the cams 1l and are arranged to actuate the independent plungers 9 during the interval or period of time while, the presser head 7 is maintained in a lowered clamping position by the dwell of the cams 11 therein.

The finished joint bar may have substantially the form shown in Figs. 5 and G of the drawings, wherein the base member d occupies the position parallel to, but spaced from a rail seating position, while the raised or upset portions c are adapted to constitute the rail seats. It will also be observed that the process preferably contemplates causing the central one of the rail seats and supports c to be at a slightly higher elevation than the other raised portions c nearer the ends of the bar, whereby the said central one of the said raised portions of the base member will give a central support at the base of the joint for the ends of the rails, while the terminal raised portions are engaged by the rails on a downward spring thereof, thereby producing a theoretically crowned-center joint.

It will be obvious that many other forms of joint bars might be produced by the prescnt process and that various other positions and forms of the raised rail seating portions 0 might be produced thereby. lt will :tur` thermore be obvious that many other and various means and instrlnnentalities may be employed to carry out the process without departing from the invention, the herein dcscribed instrumentalities being merely used as an illustration of one method in which the process could be accomplished.

I claim:

1. The process of making rail joint bars which consists in first subjecting the bar blank to a roll pass to produce an angle bar section having a splice member of finished form and a base member with the latter dis-, posed at an angle to its required final plane, then pressing the base member to its final position but disposed at a distance from a rail seating position, and subsequently displacing metal from a portion of the base member to bring such displaced metal into a rail seating plane.

Q. The process of making rail joint bars which consists in first subjecting a metal blank to a roll pass to produce an angle bar section including 4a splice member of nished another rail seating piane which lies at One form and an out-of-position base member side of the plane of the base member. l0

disposed at an angle to its required final plane, then shearing the rolled bar into rail joint lengths, next bending the base member to its final position, and subsequently displacing metal from a portion of the base member to bring such displaced metal into in testimony whereof I hereunto aiix my signature in the presence of two Witnesses.

GEORGE A." WEBER Vitnesses:

GEORGE C. LOWTHER, M. F. KNORR.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for, .five cents each, by addressingv the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

